No Promise Of Tomorrow
by ForgeandGred7
Summary: He steps forward and takes her arm, lightly tracing the scar on her wrist from the Death Eater, with fingers cold as ice. That's what scares her, he's as good as dead now. They both are.


**So, slightly darker than what I usually write and just a little bit AU (Alternative Universe) I guess it could also go along with Weatherby The Spy but you don't need to read that to read this. This was just a random idea I had. Enjoy (:**

DISCLAIMER: All the characters belong to J.K Rowling.

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><p>She wakes up screaming.<p>

The smell of blood clear in her nostrils and the feeling of dirt caked underneath her fingernails. No matter how hard she scrubs and washes, no part of her ever quite feels clean.

He's there in an instant, hands gripping her shoulders, blue eyes boring into brown ones. He kneels besides the bed as she sobs, choking on tears and grief and pain.

He's repeating the same words over and over as he wraps her in a hug, _"it's alright, Aud, it's alright,"_ even though it isn't.

It never will be again.

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><p>It's been almost three years since she's last seen her family. Three years since she agreed to leave them. She didn't want to, not really, but Dumbledore had promised things.<p>

Extra protection. Security. Safety. All that for her family in return for her help.

It took Percy longer to agree. He wasn't comfortable with the idea of deserting his family, not when things were starting to get so difficult.

But Dumbledore was persistent. As long as they spied on the Ministry for him, their families would be safe. He had assured them that everything would be fine. Like fools, they had believed him. They were innocent and clueless, naive, really.

Not now.

Percy used to get a few glimpses of his father at work, not anymore. As soon as Dumbledore had died so did safety, so did any chance of returning home.

They no longer trust easily.

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><p>They're in hiding now. They can't go back to the Ministry. It's much too dangerous. There were too many Death Eaters working on the inside, too many people under the Imperius curse, it's used so much nowadays that it no longer seems like an Unforgiveable Curse.<p>

He remembers the day that the Ministry found out the truth. They had been helping Muggleborns escape, and they had sought out Audrey first.

Percy remembers walking into her office, finding that- that_ scum_ standing over her, holding a knife. It was a rather muggle way of doing things, but apparently some Death Eaters enjoyed torturing people the muggle way.

It was about as close to non-magical culture as they were ever going to get.

There had been a lot of blood dripping from Audrey's arm where the Death Eater -Percy had never found out nor cared who was under the mask- had dug in. That had only been the first little taste of the pain Audrey was to suffer, luckily for her, it had never come.

She remembers the strangled yell, the flash of green light and the thud of the body falling beside her.

It was the first kill Percy had ever made.

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><p>The Death Eaters knew after that, they knew who Percy and Audrey were working for. It was lucky really, that their families had gone into hiding too, otherwise the Death Eaters might go after them.<p>

Most people were in hiding these days.

Though through all the charms and protection spells, it hadn't stopped her from finding them.

She had arrived in the dead of night, bleeding copiously from a gash in the side of her head and a large wound in her stomach. She had wobbled down the driveway, murmuring things about You-Know-Who and how Muggleborns had found solace in Percy and Audrey.

She had had a baby on her hip, a small boy which Audrey had grabbed as the woman collapsed to the floor.

A couple of Healers -who were aware of Percy's situation- would have been able to help had they got there a little earlier. However, all Percy had been able to do was hold the woman as the life left her. She had made them promise to take care of the baby and what else could they have said but yes? Because really, how do you refuse a dying woman her last wish?

The Healers had turned up but it had been too late. The woman had died in Percy's arms, her blood trickling through his pale fingers.

The small boy had passed away two days later.

The Healers will forever argue that it was a muggle disease known as pneumonia.

Percy will always insist that he died of a broken heart. He simply missed his mother too much.

All Audrey can ever think about is how she looked a dying woman in the eye and promised her that her baby would be safe. All Audrey ever remembers is the tiny smile that graced the woman's face as she slipped away into nothingness.

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><p>Audrey spends most of her time sleeping and more often than not, she's awoken by the visions of dying children, bloody hands and lifeless eyes.<p>

He's always there. Every night he comes in and pulls her out of her nightmares. Some nights she doesn't even go to her bed, she'll crawl in next to him because it's the only time she ever feels safe.

Dumbledore left them. Left them to rot. While he's in the comfort of a tomb, buried deep beneath the earth, they're awake, alive, forced to watch people die, forced to wonder when their time will come and if anyone would ever care if they were murdered.

His hair is dull, his eyes tired, he doesn't care about his appearance anymore. He no longer stands straight-backed and proud, but rather hunched over, like a decrepit old man who can no longer bare the weight he once could.

She's thin, almost too. She can see her ribs poking out whenever she lifts her shirt, and her once smiling mouth is constantly stained with tears. However, like him, she doesn't care.

She has bruises on her legs, scratches on her arms, injuries from battles she can no longer remember...but what does it matter? The fights are all the same in the end, blurred in her mind, all meshed into one.

He catches her one day, examining herself in the mirror, her expression one of self loathing.

He steps forward and takes her arm, lightly tracing the scar on her wrist from the Death Eater, with fingers cold as ice. That's what scares her, he's as good as dead now. They both are. Alive, but no longer living.

"Does it still hurt?" he whispers.

She shakes her head bravely. "No, I hardly think about it now," she replies. That's a lie and they both know it, but saying it aloud would make her feel weak. "Why, do you?"

He smiles a smile that does not quite reached his hollow eyes. "All the damn time," he chuckles.

She exhales slowly and looks back at her reflection. "I used to be pretty," she mumbles.

She's not vain, but nobody could deny that she was once a thing of beauty.

Now she just feels a mess. Wasted, useless, scarred and empty.

He presses a gentle kiss to her wrist. They've never admitted to being together. They don't have to.

They need each other. She understands him just as much as he gets her. That was at least the one good thing that came from their agreement with Dumbledore.

He reaches over and tucks a strand of her hair behind her hair, she turns to him, a slight blush on her cheeks.

"You still are," he says after a moment.

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><p>She would almost welcome death. It would be quicker, less painful. There's never going to be an end to this war. Even when the battle is won, and the bad guys are defeated, the memories are still there.<p>

And the scars, they never fade.

They don't believe in fairy tales anymore. She has stopped believing in those silly little muggle stories that once captivated her as a little girl, and when he sees copies of the books his mother used to read to him, he has to suppress a snort. It's all just silly little kids fantasies.

They realise the truth now, they've seen too many horrors not to.

There's no hope left. Hardly any happiness. It's all gone.

There's no promise of tomorrow. There's no guarantee of a future. There's no certainty that everything will be OK, that it'll get better.

And if anyone knows that, it's them.


End file.
